"I saw a guy break-dance in the middle of the street," said defensive lineman Aldon Smith.

"I had a nice cup of gumbo today," said defensive back Tarell Brown.

As long as everyone is just watching and listening and gumbo-ing, the 49ers will be fine. As will the Baltimore Ravens.

And the week will proceed without incident. Jim Harbaugh, the 49ers coach, says he expects his players to avoid trouble.

"It's something that some of the players have addressed and we have talked about very little," Harbaugh said. "We trust our team ... we just trust our team."

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Trouble is, trust isn't always enough. Outside forces can disrupt the internal peace. This will be the 10th time the Super Bowl has been played in New Orleans, tying it with Miami as most frequent host city. But history tells us that, for whatever reason, normalcy never accompanies a Super Bowl in these parts. It has been that way ever since the first one played here, Super Bowl IV in 1970.

That week, as Kansas City and Minnesota prepared to face each other, the name of Chiefs quarterback Len Dawson suddenly surfaced in a federal gambling investigation, sparking a media frenzy and forcing Dawson to hold a midnight news conference to proclaim his innocence (he was correct). Then, during the pregame show, a hot-air balloon crashed into the stands. The Chiefs survived and won.

In 1981 when the Raiders came here to play Philadelphia in Super Bowl XV, Oakland defensive lineman John Matuszak told reporters that he planned to patrol the French Quarter party district to make sure that younger Oakland players did not stay out too late. Matuszak then stayed up all night himself at a burlesque bar on Bourbon Street and returned to the Raiders' hotel after 5 a.m., meeting a few teammates who were rising for breakfast.

In 1986 before Super Bowl XX, Chicago quarterback Jim McMahon became upset after a local broadcaster reported third-hand gossip that McMahon had referred to the women of New Orleans as "sluts." This sparked an angry protest demonstration outside the Bears' hotel--and caused McMahon to drop his pants and moon an overhead helicopter TV news camera that was shooting video of Chicago's practice.

In 1990 before the 49ers' first Super Bowl appearance here, a Washington, D.C., television station reported that "three white NFL quarterbacks" had tested positive for cocaine but that the league was covering up those results. It was the bad luck of Joe Montana and John Elway to be the only white quarterbacks in town, so they were unfairly put on the griddle. When Montana was asked if he had ever failed a drug test, he answered, "No, only an accounting test."

In 1997, after Green Bay quarterback Brett Favre had been banned from drinking alcohol by the NFL because he was recovering from a painkiller addiction, he was allegedly spotted in a saloon on Bourbon Street. That created another media kerfuffle that didn't ease up until the Packers dispatched the Patriots to win the game.

In 2002, when Super Bowl XXXVI was played less than five months after the 9/11 attacks, security concerns were paramount. Army tanks were parked outside the Superdome, and fighter jets patrolled the skies above the French Quarter before the Patriots upset the Rams.

Frankly, it would be an upset if absolutely nothing crazy happens between now and kickoff time. Maybe it will involve fans or celebrities rather than players. When you drop America's biggest drunken party weekend into the middle of a theme park for alcohol, there can be consequences.

This is the first Super Bowl here since Hurricane Katrina wiped out big chunks of the city in 2005. But the tourist areas have been back in party-down shape for a while. And the civic leaders still embrace the good-times-roll mojo, with no shame.

Monday, the city's Super Bowl Host Committee held a formal media session that featured civic officials and the committee co-chairs, Mary Matalin and James Carville. The two famous political consultants live here as a married couple. They spoke about the pluses that New Orleans offers as a Super Bowl site, especially the compact downtown with its easy access to the football stadium, restaurants, bars, party locations and the convention center.

"You can walk everywhere," Matalin noted.

"Or, as I say, you can stumble everywhere," Carville added.

What unpredictable nuttiness will this Super Bowl stumble into before Sunday? The visiting 49ers fans might want to ponder that question over a cup of gumbo and one of those large, ahem, beers.